Tandoori style roasted Korean chicken

The other night I had a conversation about fusion cooking. Where does it start and there really aren’t any limits to what you can do. Keeping that in mind I decided to change my plans for a traditionally roasted chicken and do something new.

I had a tub of low fat yoghurt and in my special ingredients drawer I had a bag of hot Korean chilli paste. I bought it when I went to see friends in New Malden, London. For those who don’t know New Malden in London has the largest congregation of Koreans outside of (South) Korea. There are some amazing restaurants and I went shopping in a Korean supermarket. I bought all that I could carry and wished I had brought the car! Instead I popped in on the way to see my friends down the pub. I got some true goodies and this paste was one of them.

Korean yoghurt marinade

preparation time 2 minutes

cooking time 0 minutes

serves 1 chicken

Ingredients

4 dl or 2 cups of low fat yoghurt

2 tbsp Korean hot chilli paste

2 large garlic cloves, crushed

Mix all of the ingredients and cover the chicken and let marinade for up to 24 hours.

To avoid cooking the chicken whole, taking a long time and potentially burning the yoghurt marinade I decided to spatchcock the chicken. The weather was so lovely I meant to put the chicken on the barbecue but at the end of the first glorious summer day some dark clouds arrived and I decided to cook the chicken in the oven.

I found this recipe for Tandoori chicken cooked in the oven, traditionally cooked in a clay oven but with none at hand I thought I would try to cook it this way. I am actually not sure if there are any Korean recipes calling for a yoghurt marinade but in the spirit of fusion food I thought I would give it a go.

I cooked the chicken according to the instructions and it turned out to be absolutely perfect.

I sprinkled over coriander, spring onions and served the chicken with lemon wedges and a bulgur wheat salad.

The skin was crispy, and the meat was incredibly moist. The marinade was delicious and this is a keeper!

I am bringing this fusion dish to the fusion foodie party Fiesta Friday! It is hosted by the lovely Angie, a master at cooking and writing, come and join us or have a look! This week she has two great co hosts, Kalia, GF Life 24/7, and Laureana, Life Diet Health.

Yum! Looks like a keeper to me. Fusion got a bad reputation for a while when people were mixing things together for the sake of it. A spicy paste with yogurt on chicken is perfect though. It’s really not that much of a stretch and looks delicious.

This post would make a great addition to Our Growing Edge, a monthly blog link up just for new food adventures. It’s a fun way to share your new food experiences with other foodies. This month’s theme is ALLERGY FRIENDLY RECIPES.

hi Genie
Thank you for stopping by. I know I have tried some truly strange fusions but sometimes it just makes sense. The yoghurt marinade added a great tangy flavour to the warmth of the chilli paste!
I would love to join Our Growing Edge, thank you for the invite!
Have a great week 🙂

This is the kind of thing I do so often, especially when pimping chicken for my boys and it always work so well. I wonder if it should really be called ‘fusion’ at all? Our world has become so small, surely it’s just ‘world food’?

hi Elaine
I absolutely agree! A very good point. Food from all overt the world is only a click away and all the spices can be found, especially in London but also online. I love the expression pimping the chicken! ha ha 🙂

Love this dish! I feel as though many of the best dishes come when you least expect it, either by combining two ideas or in my house using the ingredients left in the refrigerator. I’m sure it’ll be a hit at the fiesta. Thanks for sharing, and I hope you have a wonderful week! 😀

Oh gosh. That chicken looks just perfect! Love the burned bits, to me they are the best 🙂 And about fusion food, I think you can go just as far as you want but it will probably end up with a new dish rather than a mix somewhere on the line. But thats whats great about cooking, no rules 🙂

hi Petra
Thanks for stopping by! I agree I love the brunt bits, they were just on the edge!
I love to experiment and this worked out so well, can’t wait to use the same method again and see how it goes 🙂